The Further Adventures of Pud

Philip “Pud” Kaplan, former steward of FuckedCompany.com, is stepping down as CEO of blog ad marketplace AdBrite to make room for a “hardcore business guy.”

CNET had a story on it today painting Kaplan as a partying bungler sneered out of the room by the company’s board. That’s off-base he says, and I’d have to agree given that he remains chairman and will continue with the company in a product management role.

He told me in an email today, “Im not going anywhere. AdBrite had huge growth over the past six months and I wanted a hardcore business guy with experience & success to work here.”

Taking over as CEO is Iggy Fanlo, former president of Shopping.com.

I wrote a feature last year comparing Kaplan with John Battelle, who runs a very different blog ad network. The two men have oddly parallel histories with digital media. They’re like inverted reflections of one another.

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